Race crash boy’s recovery a first

A BOY who was almost decapitated in a racing car crash has got back behind the wheel after a miraculous recovery, his mother said yesterday.

Chris Stewart, 14, is one of only six people who have survived the so-called hangman’s injury after his skull and neck were separated.

He was 12 when his car hit a barrier in a junior race in September 2006.

Doctors reattached his skull to his spine using titanium plates and screws in a risky seven-hour operation and Chris is the only person in the world to recover fully enough to lead a normal life. A few others survived the operation but were left paralysed.

His mother Debbie, 43, said: “The recovery could not be described as anything short of miraculous. It’s an unheard-of recovery, a complete medical phenomenon to the extent he has gone full circle now and is driving again.

“It’s just nothing we could have contemplated in September 2006.”

It took nine months for Chris to learn how to speak, eat and walk again and doctors have now given him the green light to drive. But his mother has banned car racing and only allows him to drive a go-kart for now.

Chris has been three times this year to a track near his home in Fareham, Hampshire. The crash has not dampened his enthusiasm for motor sports and he also builds cars for banger racing.

“I can’t be with him all the time but for now I don’t want him grass track racing,” his mother said.